Wednesday, October 7, 2026ICYMI | Wall Street Journal: “Wells Fargo Faces Regulator Probe Over Efforts to Boost Black Homeownership”

WASHINGTON - Today, Secretary Turner launched an investigation into Wells Fargo's initiatives to increase homeownership for Black Americans, which may be a violation of the Fair Housing Act.

"Even if Wells Fargo did not violate the law, its practice of dividing Americans based on race is immoral, unethical and un-American," said Secretary Scott Turner. "Wells Fargo and all of its employees that engaged in race-based decision-making should be ashamed of themselves."

"The Trump Administration will not stand for un-American and unlawful race-based mortgage lending practices from any financial institution," said Deputy Secretary Andrew Hughes. "This investigation is another important step in the agency's work to restore justice to fair housing enforcement."

"The Fair Housing Act forbids racial discrimination in housing. It does not say: discriminate, so long as the discrimination is called a 'special purpose credit program' and justified as advancing 'racial equity in homeownership,'" said Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Craig Trainor. "No matter an institution's size, wealth, or power, if there is reasonable cause to believe it has violated Americans' civil rights, the Trump Administration will hold it to account."

Read the full letter here.

Read the exclusive story from the Wall Street Journal:

Trump administration housing officials are launching an investigation into Wells Fargo over programs and commitments the bank made over nearly a decade to increase homeownership among Black Americans.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development on Wednesday sent Wells Fargo Chief Executive Charlie Scharf a letter saying it would examine whether the bank violated fair-lending laws by favoring Black or other minority homeowners, according to a copy viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Wells Fargo didn't have an immediate comment Wednesday.

The investigation provides another example of corporate America finding itself in the crosshairs for programs that were encouraged during prior administrations, either by the government or socially conscious investors.

The Trump administration has opened investigations into companies for so-called diversity, equity and inclusion programs. It has also launched attempts to find evidence of "debanking," where banks closed the accounts of businesses or individuals operating in politically controversial industries, from fossil fuels to firearms.

Wells Fargo's campaign to help Black homeowners goes back years. In 2017, the bank said it was committing $60 billion in loans in an effort to help add at least 250,000 Black homeowners by 2027.

In 2022, the bank expanded the program to put the company's own money to work refinancing minority homes. That followed criticism the bank faced over a Bloomberg report that it had rejected half of all refinancing applications by Black families in 2020.

"These efforts are an important next step and will help close the homeownership gap between white and minority families created by decades of systemic inequities," Wells Fargo said in 2022.

In early 2023, Wells Fargo scaled down its mortgage business broadly, focusing on lending to existing customers, but again reiterated a pledge to advance racial equity in housing.

In 2024, only 24% of Black households owned the home they lived in, compared with 73% of White households, according to the Pew Research Center.

Now, Trump officials are considering whether the bank's efforts to help Black families were a violation of the Fair Housing Act. In its letter, HUD said Wells Fargo had adopted a strategy of "sorting" homeowners and offering different products or terms based on their race.

HUD Secretary Scott Turner said that he plans a full investigation into Wells Fargo's statements. The agency is also reviewing similar initiatives by other banks, according to a senior HUD official.

"Even if Wells Fargo did not violate the law, its practice of dividing Americans based on race is immoral, unethical and un-American," Turner said. "Wells Fargo and all of its employees that engaged in race-based decision-making should be ashamed of themselves."

The HUD probe follows investigations by the Justice Department examining whether government contractors violated antifraud laws by implementing what the administration has called "unlawful" DEI practices. Such programs proliferated amid social unrest in the aftermath of a wave of police violence against Black Americans, including the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

Last year, International Business Machines and Deloitte paid multimillion-dollar fines to resolve claims they defrauded the government by considering diversity when hiring and making promotion and staffing decisions.

The diversity programs and corporate initiatives responding to environmental issues became the subject of intense political backlash from conservatives. Since Trump's election in 2024, many companies have moved away from their diversity goals, scrubbing websites and investor disclosures.

Wells Fargo achieved about 40% of its initial $60 billion lending commitment and had helped refinance about 5,100 customers-representing an average monthly payment savings of about $100-when it commissioned a racial-equity assessment in late 2023.

It has since gone silent on its racial-equity initiatives, removing the 2023 assessment from its website.

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